Nov 1, 2015 5 min read

You won’t hear the Cincinnati Bengals feeling sorry for the Steelers anytime soon.

Sure, the Steelers are dealing with a ridiculous amount of injuries this season, but some of their woes with guys missing games has also been self-inflicted – ie. the suspensions of Martavis Bryant and Le’Veon Bell.

But there’s no doubt the Steelers have had more injuries this season than many other teams, with placekicker Shaun Suisham, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, center Maurkice Pouncey, left tackle Kelvin Beachum and now Bell going down.

The Steelers have weathered the storm thus far, but at some point it just gets to be too much.

According to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport, Bell is done for the season with a torn MCL and other damage in his right knee.

Winning the AFC North was already out the window with the Bengals now having a firm grasp on the division.

So now the question for the Steelers is, can they get to the 10 or so wins that will be needed to secure a wildcard spot?

Without Bell for an extended period that will be difficult. But it won’t be impossible.

DeAngelo Williams has done a credible job in Bell’s absence this season. But he’s also a bit long of tooth.

And, as we saw with Cincinnati Sunday, without Bell, Pouncey and Beachum, the Bengals felt they could stop the run with seven guys. And outside of a 55-yard by Williams, they did a nice job of that.

On Williams’ other eight runs, he gained 16 yards.

Things will be a little more difficult, but not impossible.

The Steelers still have a talented offense. They still have weapons in the passing game. But they’ll need to get a little more creative.

More willt be expected from Roethlisberger.

He’ll certainly have to be better than he was Sunday.

@ There’s another reason the Bengals won’t be feeling sorry for the Steelers anytime soon. They went through similar issues in 2014, playing without Tyler Eifert and Marvin Jones all season and A.J. Green for a healthy portion of it.

They still made the playoffs – despite Andy Dalton being the quarterback.

@ Roethlisberger was playing fine Sunday with no signs of “rust” – until he wasn’t.

His first interception was clearly a forced pass into double coverage. The Bengals had both safeties deep following Bell’s injury and Roethlisberger should have continued taking the underneath stuff. Instead of the 10 passes Heath Miller caught, he should have had 20.

Roethlisberger’s second interception was a great play by Shaun Williams, but Will Johnson was the only Steelers receiver on that side of the field. Roethlisberger, who had rolled that way to escape pressure, should have thrown the ball away or ran five yards and slid.

His final interception came on a pass with a guy in his face and it sailed high.

It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t great, either. Roethlisberger will be better moving forward,

@ Fans are killing Mike Tomlin for allowing the game clock to run after Cincinnati’s first play following Roethlisberger’s third interception.

But if he calls a timeout following the Bengals’ run, they burn all of their timeouts before the two-minute warning. Sure, maybe they still get a stop and force the Bengals into a field goal.

But at that point, Tomlin almost goaded Marvin Lewis into going for the field goal and a 6-point lead when a touchdown would have put the game away for good.

If Tomlin uses his timeouts, Lewis starts looking at the clock and figures the Steelers will have too much time remaining if he attempts a field goal before the two-minute warning. So then, perhaps he goes for the jugular and really tries for the first down instead of running three plays into a crowded line of scrimmage.

As it was, the Bengals kicked the field goal with 1:51 remaining and the Steelers still had one timeout remaining when they got the ball back with 1:47 left.

And despite a terrible start to the series with a sack and an illegal motion penalty in the first four plays, the Steelers were throwing into the end zone on the game’s final play from the Cincinnati 16.

I don’t know if that happens if they had burned all of their timeouts, but I know it wouldn’t have happened if the Bengals had been more aggressive and converted on third down.

@ As bad as this game was, it’s apparent that Andy Dalton is still Andy Dalton. Put pressure on him and he will make mistakes.

The Steelers did that for 57 minutes in this one and sacked him three times and forced two interceptions.

Dalton came into this game having been sacked six times with two interceptions.

Had the offense – ie. Roethlisberger – played to his usual capabilities, the Steelers win this one going away.